V 


Ji  Ipto  Itaro  for  %  |aj|: 

A 

SERMON 


PREACHED  AT  THE  MUSIC  HALL,  IX  BOSTON, 


On  Sunday,  May  25,  1856. 


THEODORE  PARKER, 


MINISTER  OF  THE  TWENTY-EIGHTH  CONGREGATIONAL  SOCIETY. 


gfjonocirapfitcalli)  reported  bg  fHessrs.  gerrinton  antr  fLeigfjton. 


BOSTON: 

BENJAMIN  H.  GREENE, 

124,  Washington  Street. 

1856. 


BOSTON: 


PRINTED  BY  JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON, 
22,  School  Street. 


r 


]r  ’  **  C  v  ^  Af 


3^4.  }?3 

P 


SERMON. 


Psalm  xn.  8 :  “  The  aahcked  avalk.  ox  every  side,  avhen  the  vilest  men 

ARE  EXALTED.” 


On  the  last  Sunday  of  May,  1854,  which  was  also  the 
beginning  of  Anniversary  Week,  I  stood  here  to  preach  a 
Sermon  of  War,  In  1846,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Mexican 
trouble,  I  spoke  of  that  national  wickedness,  and  again,  at 
the  end  of  the  strife,  warned  the  country  of  that  evil  deed, 
begun  without  the  People’s  consent.  When  the  next  great 
quarrel  broke  out,  in  1854,  and  Russia,  Turkey,  England, 
and  France  were  engaged  in  a  war  which  threatened  to  set 
all  Europe  in  a  flame,  I  prepared  an  elaborate  sermon  on 
the  causes  and  most  obvious  consequences  of  that  great 
feud,  an  account  of  the  forces  then  in  the  field  or  on  the 
flood,  and  tried  to  picture  forth  the  awful  spectacle  of  Chris¬ 
tian  Europe  in  the  hour  of  war.  I  spent  many  days  in  col¬ 
lecting  the  facts  and  studying  their  significance.  But,  while 
I  was  computing  the  cost  and  the  consequence  of  foreign 
wickedness,  a  crime  even  more  atrocious  was  getting  com¬ 
mitted  under  our  own  eyes,  in  the  streets  of  Boston  ;  and, 
when  I  came  to  preach  on  the  Russian  attack  against  the 
independence  of  a  sister  state,  I  found  the  sermon  wholly 


4 


out  of  time  :  for  the  Boston  Judge  of  Probate  had  assaulted 
a  brother  man,  innocent  of  all  offence,  poor,  unprotected, 
and  apparently  friendless.  The  guardian  of  orphans  —  a 
man  not  marked  by  birth  for  such  a  deed,  but  spurred  thereto 
by  cruel  goads  —  had  kidnapped  an  American  in  our  streets, 
clapped  him  into  an  unlawful  jail,  watched  him  with  ruf¬ 
fians,  the  offscouring  of  the  town,  and  guarded  him  with 
foreign  soldiers,  hired  to  rend  and  kill  whomsoever  our 
masters  set  them  on.  Without  hearing  the  evidence,  this 
swift  judge  had  already  decided  to  destroy  his  victim,  and 
told  the  counsel,  Put  no  “  obstacles  in  the  way  of  his  going 
back,  as  he  probably  will.”  The  whole  Commonwealth  was 
in  confusion.  Boston  was  in  a  state  of  siege.  A  hundred 
and  eighty  foreign  soldiers  filled  up  the  Court  House.  There 
had  been  an  extemporaneous  meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall,  an 
attempt  to  rescue  the  kidnapper’s  victim,  an  attack  on  the 
Court  House,  then  unlawfully  made  a  barracoon  for  our 
Southern  masters  to  keep  their  slaves  in.  One  of  the  volun¬ 
teers  in  man-stealing  had  been  slain,  and  ten  or  twelve  citi¬ 
zens  were  in  jail  on  charge  of  murder.  So,  when  I  stood  here, 
and  looked  into  the  eyes  of  the  great  crowd  which  filled  up 
these  aisles,  I  saw  it  was  no  time  to  treat  of  the  Russian 
war  against  liberty;  and  my  discourse  of  that  wickedness 
turned  into  a  “  Lesson  for  the  Bay,”  touching  the  new  Crime 
against  Humanity.  Since  then,  no  occasion  has  offered  for 
treating  of  that  dreadful  conflict  of  the  European  nations. 

Now,  when  the  Russian  war  is  all  over,  the  treaty  of 
peace  definitely  settled,  I  thought  it  would  be  worth  while 
to  examine  that  matter:  for  the  cloud  of  battle  has  lifted 
up,  and  we  can  look  back,  and  learn  the  causes  of  the  con¬ 
flict  ;  look  round,  and  see  the  dead  bodies,  the  remnants  of 
cities  burned,  of  navies  sunk ;  can  look  forward,  and  calcu¬ 
late  what  loss  or  gain  thence  accrues  to  mankind ;  and  so 
get  possibly  a  little  guidance,  and  a  great  deal  of  warning,  for 
our  own  conduct.  So,  to-day,  I  had  intended  to  preach  a 


o 


calm  and  philosophical  Sermon  of  the  Late  War  in  Europe  ; 
examining  at  length  its  Cause,  Process,  and  Results,  for  the 
present  and  the  future,  and  its  Relation  to  the  Progress  and 
Welfare  of  Mankind.  I  meant  to  look  at  that  transaction 
in  the  light  of  modern  philosophy,  and  of  that  religion 
which  is  alike  human  and  Christian.  But  now,  as  before, 
a  new  Crime  against  Humanity  has  been  committed.  I 
must  therefore  lay  by  my  speculations  on  that  distant  evil, 
and  speak  of  what  touches  the  sin  at  our  own  doors.  So, 
this  morning,  I  shall  ask  your  attention  to  A  New  Lesson 
for  the  Day,  in  which  I  shall  say  a  little  about  the  Russian 
war  and  European  affairs,  —  yet  enough  to  give  a  tone  of 
warning,  and  so  likewise  of  guidance,  —  and  shall  have 
much  to  offer  touching  affairs  in  our  country  ;  a  little  of  the 
Russian  war,  much  of  the  American.  This  discourse  may 
be  profitable  :  it  is  not  pleasant  to  speak  or  hear. 

When  an  important  event  occurs,  I  have  felt  it  my  duty, 
as  a  minister  and  public  speaker,  to  look  for  its  Causes, — 
which  often  lie  far  behind  us,  wholly  out  of  sight,  —  and 
also  for  its  Consequences,  that  are  equally  hidden  in  the 
distance  before  us.  Accordingly,  to  some,  who  only  look 
round  them  in  haste,  not  far  back  or  forth,  what  I  say  often 
seems  improper  and  out  of  season.  Thus,  in  1846,  when  I 
treated  of  the  Mexican  war,  many  critics  said,  You  must 
wait  till  we  have  done  fighting,  before  you  preach  against 
its  wrong  !  And  when  I  reviewed  the  Life  and  Conduct  of 
Mr.  Webster,  —  the  greatest  understanding  New  England 
has  borne  in  her  bosom  for  a  whole  generation,  —  they 

said  again,  De  mortuis  nil  nisi  bonum ,  —  You  had  better  put 

/ 

off  your  criticism  for  fifty  years!  But  at  that  time  both  you 
and  I  will  not  be  here  to  make  or  profit  by  it.  Some  men 
will  also  doubtless  condemn  what  1  offer  now.  Wait  a  little, 
before  you  judge.  A  few  years,  perhaps  a  few  days,  will 
justify  the  saddest  things  I  have  to  say.  I  wish  to  mount 
a  great  Lesson  on  this  fleet  occasion. 


6 


The  events  of  the  last  week  at  Washington  have  caused 
a  great  heat  in  this  community,  not  excessive  at  all;  it  is 
too  little,  rather  than  too  much.  They  have  not  heated  me 
in  the  smallest;  my  pulse  has  not  beat  quicker  than  before  ; 
and,  though  a  tear  may  sometimes  spring  to  my  eye,  my 
judgment  is  as  calm  and  cool  as  before:  for  this  assault  on 
Mr.  Sumner  is  no  new  thing.  I  have  often  talked  such 
matters  over  with  him,  and  said,  I  know  you  are  prepared  to 
meet  the  reasoning  of  the  South  when  it  is  tendered  in 
words  ;  but  her  chief  argument  is  bludgeons  and  bullets ; 
are  you  ready  for  that  ?  And  our  Senator  was  as  cool 
about  it  as  I  am  :  he  also  had  looked  the  matter  in  the 
face.  It  excites  no  surprise  in  him,  none  in  me.  When 
the  iron  is  hot,  it  is  just  as  well  that  the  blacksmith  should 
be  cool. 


First  look  at  the  Russian  matter,  then  at  the  Ameri¬ 
can. 

Look  at  the  Amount  of  Evil  in  that  Russian  war. 

It  did  not  last  two  years ;  yet  see  what  vast  sums  of 
money  it  has  cost!  Here  are  the  figures  :  they  are  partly 
conjectural,  but  wholly  moderate ;  they  are  the  estimates  of 
some  of  the  great  European  journals.  France  and  England 
have  paid  four  hundred  and  eighty  millions  of  dollars,  Tur¬ 
key  a  hundred  and  forty  millions,  Austria  a  hundred  mil¬ 
lions,  Russia  three  hundred  millions.  Here,  then,  ten 
hundred  and  twenty  millions  of  dollars  have  been  eaten  up 
in  a  war  not  twenty-four  months  long.  Now,  that  sum  of 
money  is  more  than  seven  times  as  great  as  the  entire  pro¬ 
perty,  real  and  personal,  of  “  the  great  State  of  South 
Carolina.”  That  is  the  direct  cost  to  the  governments  ol  the 
Five  Nations  :  it  does  not  include  the  damage  done  to  their 
forts  and  ships  (and,  in  a  single  night,  Russia  destroyed 


a  larger  navy  of  her  own  vessels  than  the  United  States 
owns,  —  burnt  and  sunk  it  in  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol) ;  it 
does  not  embrace  the  diminution  of  military  and  naval 
supplies,  or  the  pensions  hereafter  to  be  paid  ;  it  makes  no 
account  of  the  injury  to  individuals  whose  property  has 
been  consumed,  or  the  great  cost  to  the  other  powers  of 
Europe.  When  all  the  bills  are  in,  as  they  will  be  a  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  years  hence,  then  I  think  it  will  appear  that 
that  two  years’  fight  cost  Europe  two  thousand  millions  of 
dollars.  That  is  the  amount  of  the  personal  and  real  estate 
of  Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania. 

Here  are  the  figures  representing  the  deaths  of  soldiers. 
England  has  lost  fifty  thousand  soldiers,  France  a  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventy  thousand,  Turkey  eighty  thousand,  and 
Russia  four  hundred  thousand  ;  making  seven  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  men,  who  have  perished  in  the  prime  of  life.  This 
does  not  include  those  who  will  yet  die  of  their  wounds,  nor 
such  as  perish  by  the  worst  of  deaths,  —  the  slow  heart¬ 
break  of  orphans  and  widows,  or  those  who  meant  to  be 
wives,  but  are  widows,  though  never  married.  Put  it  all 
together,  and  the  two  years’  war  has  cost  at  least  a  million 
of  lives.  Such  a  spendthrift  is  war,  both  of  money  and 
men. 

Now  look  at  the  Causes  of  this  amount  of  evil,  which 
are  quite  various.  Some  of  them  lie  on  the  top. 

First,  there  is  the  despotism  of  the  Russian  governors, 
who  rule  their  subjects  with  an  iron  rod.  There  is  no  free¬ 
dom  of  industry  in  Russia,  none  of  religion ;  and  freedom 
of  speech  is  also  cut  off.  They  attack  and  despoil  other 
nations  more  civilized  than  themselves.  The  Russian  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  long  been  the  great  fillibuster  of  Christendom. 
Turkey  was  feeble,  Russia  strong ;  each  was  despotic ;  and 
the  big  despot  would  eat  up  the  little.  Russia  was  Chris- 


8 


tian,  —  theologically  Christian,  not  morally,  —  Turkey  was 
Mahometan  ;  and  the  Christian  wished  to  tread  the  Maho¬ 
metan  under  foot.  The  Emperor  said,  61  Turkey  is  a  sick 
man  ;  let  us  kill  him,  that  the  inheritance  may  be  ours.” 
This  was  the  first  obvious  cause,  the  despotism  of  Russia, 
the  initiating  cause. 

But  other  rulers  had  a  kindred  spirit.  The  other 
great  powers  of  Europe  are  Prussia,  Austria,  France, 
and  England.  Prussia  and  Austria  are  despotic  gov¬ 
ernments.  A  small  class  of  oligarchs  domineer  over  the 
people.  They  are  closely  joined  to  Russia  by  nature 
and  aim  ;  by  alliances,  matrimonial  or  diplomatic.  The 
governments  of  Russia,  Austria,  and  Prussia  are  a  national 
brotherhood  of  thieves.  In  the  eighteenth  century,  they 
plundered  Poland;  in  the  nineteenth,  other  nations;  and 
their  own  subjects  continually.  This  judgment  seems 
rather  harsh.  I  do  not  speak  of  the  People,  only  of  the 
oligarchy  which  rules  the  hundred  and  twenty  millions 
who  make  up  these  three  nations. 

France  has  established  a  military  despotism,  with  the 
picture  of  “universal  suffrage”  painted  on  the  cannon. 
The  farce  of  a  Republic  is  every  year  enacted  by  soldiers  and 
government  officers,  —  administration  officials.  She  also 
longs  for  conquest,  —  witness  Algiers  and  Rome,  —  and  in 
idle  vanities  consumes  the  people’s  wealth,  —  spends  eighty 
thousand  dollars  to  christen  a  little  baby,  an  imperial  doll. 

Alone  of  all  these  great  powers,  England  respects  the 
rights  of  the  people,  and  has  institutions  progressively 
democratic.  She  purposely  advances  towards  freedom. 
But  she,  too,  shares  the  instinct  to  conquer,  and,  after 
Russia,  is  the  most  invasive  power  in  Europe.  Witness 
her  conquests  all  round  the  world.  She  owns  a  sixth  part 
of  the  earth’s  surface,  —  controls  a  fifth  part  of  the  popula¬ 
tion.  Besides  that,  this  noble  Anglo-Saxon  nation  is  ruled 
by  an  hereditary  aristocracy  of  kings,  nobles,  and  priests, 


9 


who,  though  the  best  perhaps  in  Europe,  yet  tread  the 
people  down,  though  far  less  than  anywhere  else  in  Europe. 
Certainly,  for  the  last  three  hundred  years,  England  has  been 
the  great  bulwark  of  human  freedom ;  and,  just  now,  she 
is  the  only  European  nation  that  allows  liberty  of  speech 
on  matters  of  religion,  politics,  science,  every  thing.  In 
Europe,  freedom  can  only  be  defended  in  the  English 
tongue. 

Now,  in  common  with  Austria,  Russia,  and  France,  the 
English  Government  had  longed  for  the  spoils  of  Turkey, — 
also  counting  the  Sultan  a  sick  man,  and  wanting  his 
inheritance.  But  these  great  powers  could  not  agree  as  to 
the  share  that  each  should  take ;  otherwise  the  Sultan  had 
died  twenty  years  ago. 

All  Europe  is  ruled  by  an  affiliated  oligarchy  of  kings, 
nobles,  and  priests,  who  have  unity  of  idea  and  aim,  to 
develop  the  power  of  the  strong  and  to  keep  the  people 
down,  and  unity  of  action  in  all  great  matters.  But  in 
England  there  is  such  a  mass  of  thoughtful  men,  men  of 
property  too,  such  a  stern  love  of  individual  liberty,  that 
the  foot  of  despotism  is  never  secure,  nor  its  print  is  ever 
very  deep,  on  that  firm  Saxon  soil.  Just  now  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  nation  in  Europe  presents  a  very  grand  spectacle. 
She  opens  her  arms  to  the  exile  from  every  land :  despots 
find  a  home  there,  with  none  to  molest  nor  make  them 
afraid ;  and  patriots  are  welcome  to  the  generous  bosom  of 
England,  which  bore  our  fathers.  Though  she  once,  and 
wickedly,  fought  against  us,  she  respects  and  loves  her  sons, 
perhaps  not  the  least  ^oble  portion  of  herself. 

The  spirit  of  despotism  in  the  other  governments  of 
Europe,  kindred  to  the  invasive  despotism  of  Russia,  was 
the  next  cause  of  that  war,  —  the  cause  co-operative. 

The  reputation  of  France  and  England  for  ancient 
mutual  hate,  led  the  Russian  Emperor  to  believe  they  would 
not  oppose  his  rapacity.  Neither  was  strong  enough 

2 


10 


alone  ;  and  they  could  not  join.  So  he  reached  out  his  hand 
to  snatch  the  glittering  prize.  Of  course,  he  began  the 
robbery  with  a  pious  pretence:  he  did  not  wish  for  Turkish 
soil,  only  “to  protect  the  Christians,”  to  “have  access  to 
the  holy  places  where  our  blessed  Lord  was  born  and  slain, 
and  buried  too;”  so  that  all  Christian  people  might  fulfil 
the  prophecy,  and  “  go  up  to  the  mountain  of  the  Lord.” 
The  Latin  proverb  says  well,  “  All  evil  begins  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord.”  This  was  no  exception. 

This  brief  quarrel,  which  costs  mankind  two  thousand 
million  dollars  and  ten  hundred  thousand  lives,  was  a  War 
of  Politicians,  not  at  all  of  the  People.  It  began  only  with 
despots :  there  was  no  ill  blood  between  the  nations.  Had 
Nicholas  asked  the  Russians,  “  Will  you  go  and  plunder 
Turkey  in  the  name  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth?”  the  People 
would  have  said,  “Not  so;  but  we  will  stay  at  home.” 
The  war  came  from  no  sudden  heat.  Nicholas  had  fore¬ 
seen  it,  planned  it,  and  in  secret  made  ready  at  Sebastopol 
the  vast  array  of  means  for  this  wicked  enterprise ;  had 
laid  his  gunpowder  plot  long  years  before ;  and,  at  the  right 
time,  this  imperial  Guy  Faux  fired  the  train  which  was  to 
blow  up  an  ancient  empire,  and  open  his  way  to  the  con¬ 
quest  of  the  Western  World.  No  more  liberty,  if  that  scheme 
succeed!  Yet  the  statesmen  of  France,  Austria,  Prussia, 
England,  were  privy  to  the  intentions  of  this  re-actionary, 
who  sought  to  put  back  the  march  of  human-kind  :  they 
were  accessory  to  the  purpose,  though  they  knew  not  the 
hidden  means.  The  war  was  the  result  of  causes  long  in 
action,  which  produced  this  waste  of  life  and  its  material  — 
the  “  proximate  formation  ”  of  men  —  as  certainly  as  grass- 
seed  comes  up  grass. 

Here  are  the  practical  maxims  of  all  despotism  :  No 
Higher  Law  of  God  above  the  selfish  force  of  the  strong; 
no  natural  rights  of  the  weak ;  all  belongs  to  the  violence 
of  power! 


11 


In  open  daylight,  two  things  went  before  this  European 
waste  of  life  :  (1.)  The  corruptions  of  the  Ruling  class  :  one 
of  the  most  learned  men  in  Christendom  declares,  that, 
since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  State  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries,  Europe’s  controlling  men  have  never  been 
so  corrupt,  so  mean  and  selfish,  as  are  now  the  kings,  nobles, 
and  priesthood.  (2.)  The  servility  of  the  class  next  below 
the  high  aristocracy,  who  tolerate  and  encourage  the  in¬ 
flicted  wrong,  hoping  themselves  to  share  the  profit  that  it 
brings. 

Still  more,  all  this  wickedness  is  the  work  of  very  few 
men.  If  a  hundred  politicians  in  Europe  had  said,  u  There 
shall  be  no  war,”  there  would  have  been  no  war;  nay,  if 
ten  men  in  Europe  had  distinctly  said,  “  There  shall  be  no 
war  against  Turkey,”  there  would  have  been  none;  if  two 
men  in  the  cabinets  of  each  of  the  five  great  powers  had 
said  so,  all  this  immense  outlay  would  have  been  spared. 

Such  are  the  Causes.  On  so  narrow  a  hinge  turns  the 
dreadful  gate  of  war! 

Look  now  at  the  Results.  Some  are  good.  The  inter¬ 
vention  of  France  and  England  has  shown  that  national 
hatred  can  be  overcome;  that  difference  of  religion  does 
not  separate  the  Turk  from  Christian  sympathy.  The 
bloody  valor  of  France  and  England  has  checked  the 
Westward  and  Southward  progress  of  Russian  despotism 
for  the  next  fifty  years ;  and  that  filibustering  nation  is 
weakened  in  her  purse,  her  army,  and  her  navy,  and  re¬ 
strained  from  immediate  encroachment  on  other  European 

/ 

States.  She  will  now  turn  her  immense  power  to  develop 
the  material  resources  of  her  own  territory.  And  let  me 
say,  that  the  Russian  People  have  grand  and  magnificent 
qualities;  and  whoso  stands  here  three  hundred  years 
hence  will  tell  a  history  of  them  which  few  sanguine 
scholars  would  dare  prophesy  at  this  day.  The  Russian 


12 


Government  is  another  matter ;  of  that  I  do  not  wish  to 
say  any  thing.  That  is  the  first  good  that  has  been  done; 
it  was  done  wholly  by  France  and  England.  Yon  do  not 
forget  the  “  perfidious  ”  conduct  of  Austria. 

Then,  the  war  has  led  Russia  to  open  her  ports,  and  es¬ 
tablish  free  trade  with  all  the  world ;  and  that  will  not  only 
increase  the  material  riches  of  Russia,  but  it  will  be  in 
some  measure  a  guaranty  against  future  wars  between  her 
and  other  nations.  For  those  fortresses  which  at  this  day 
most  effectually  keep  war  from  a  nation  are  not  built  of 
stone  and  earth :  they  are  the  warehouses  in  the  great 
commercial  streets,  bales  of  goods,  boxes  of  sugar,  money 
on  deposit  in  the  great  cities  of  the  world.  Free  trade 
will  help  that. 

Again,  Turkey  is  delivered  from  her  worst  foe ;  and  a 
secret  treaty  between  Austria,  England,  and  France,  gua¬ 
rantees  the  independence  of  that  State.  It  seems  the  Allies 
stole  a  march  on  the  Russian,  and  negotiated  this  treaty 
in  the  dark. 

Besides,  Turkey  agrees  to  respect  the  Christians  who 
have  delivered  her  from  the  enemy.  She  has  agreed  to  set 
a  lesson  of  toleration ;  and  it  is  a  little  striking  to  see,  that, 
just  at  the  time  when  Turkey  offered  freedom  of  religion 
to  the  Christians  and  all  others,  California  was  doubting 
whether  she  should  allow  the  Chinese  to  set  up  a  temple 
to  Buddha,  which  even  Americans  think  should  not  be 
suffered.  But  I  thank  God  that  every  form  of  Religion, 
old  as  the  Buddhistic  or  new  as  the  Mormon,  can  find  a 
place  in  our  land.  I  would  not  ask  the  Chinese  to  let  our 
missionaries  into  their  country,  and  refuse  the  Chinese  mis¬ 
sionary  a  corresponding  privilege.  Just  now,  Christianity  is 
more  free  in  Turkey  than  in  Russia,  Austria,  or  the  Home  of 
the  Reformation  itself.  Another  Arius  or  Athanasius  might 
teach  at  Constantinople ;  while  neither  would  be  allowed  in 
a  pulpit  at  Vienna,  Moscow,  or  Wittenberg. 


13 


Moreover,  the  treaty  makes  a  desirable  change  in  the  law 
of  nations.  Privateering  is  abolished ;  a  neutral  flag  pro¬ 
tects  enemy’s  goods,  while  the  hostile  flag  does  not  imperil 
neutral  goods ;  there  can  be  no  paper  blockades.  This  is 
a  great  step  in  civilization. 

But  all  those  things  might  have  been  done  without 
drawing  a  sword  or  shedding  a  drop  of  blood.  Had  the 
controlling  class  been  humane  men ;  nay,  had  the  ten  I 
speak  of  insisted  on  these  few  things,  —  the  whole  would 
have  been  done,  and  not  a  bullet  shot.  But  the  People 
must  have  leaders ;  and  the  hereditary  rulers  in  Europe 
seem  hardly  wiser  than  the  elected  in  America.  A  born 
deceiver  is  no  better  than  a  deceiver  chosen  and  sworn  in ; 
and,  if  the  wicked  lead  the  ignorant,  the  latter  are  sure  to 
fall  into  the  ditch.  The  crimes  of  statesmen  are  written  in 
the  People’s  blood. 

Some  of  the  effects  are  only  evil.  There  is  a  great  debt 
entailed  on  the  nations,  to  be  paid  by  millions  not  yet  born. 
The  yoke  of  bondage  is  more  firmly  fixed  than  before,  for 
the  standing  armies  are  increased  all  over  Europe ;  and  they 
are  the  tools  of  tyrants. 

France  and  England  have  become  stronger  by  their 
union.  To  balance  that  increase  of  power,  the  Austrian 
Emperor  has  made  a  Concordat  with  the  Pope;  and  those 
two  are  likewise  at  one.  In  all  the  Austrian  territory,  the 
Romish  Priest  controls  the  public  worship,  the  public  edu¬ 
cation,  the  printing  and  selling  and  reading  of  books. 
Thus  a  long  step  is  taken  backwards  towards  the  dark 

N 

ages. 

Besides,  there  has  been  a  considerable  demoralization  of 
the  people  in  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  caused  by  those 
deeds  of  violence,  the  spectacle  and  report  of  such  national 
murder,  which  it  will  take  years  to  overcome. 

All  the  good,  it  seems  to  me,  might  have  been  effected 


14 


with  no  war ;  all  the  evil  saved,  had  only  the  leading  states¬ 
men  of  Europe  had  noble  hearts,  as  well  as  able  heads  and 
high  political  rank.  That  vast  sum  of  misery  is  to  be  set 
down  to  the  account  of  a  small  number  of  men.  Nicholas 
of  Russia  seems  most  of  all  to  blame;  next,  mankind  must 
charge  this  waste  of  property  and  life  on  the  corruption  and 
selfishness  of  the  ruling  class  in  Europe,  and  the  servility 
of  those  next  below  them  in  social  rank  and  public  power. 
Remember  all  this  when  you  come  to  think  of  America ; 
and  this  old  Hebrew  oracle  not  less  :  “  Righteousness  ex- 
alteth  a  nation ;  but  sin  is  the  ruin  of  any  people.”  The 
sin  of  the  ruler  is  the  destruction  of  the  people. 

So  much  for  Europe.  Now  a  word  of  our  own  country. 

America  is  now  in  a  state  of  incipient  civil  war :  houses 
are  burned,  others  are  plundered ;  blood  is  shed.  A  few 
months  ago,  two  worthy  men  from  Kansas,  Judge  Conway 
and  Gen.  Pomeroy,  were  worshipping  here  with  us.  They 
were  often  at  my  house.  They  have  violated  no  consti¬ 
tutional  law,  no  legal  statute.  But  the  newspapers  report 
that  both  are  in  jail :  if  they  are  at  large,  it  is  through  their 
skill  in  escaping  from  lawless  foes.  Governor  Robinson, 
who  was  also  here  but  a  few  weeks  ago,  is  now  in  jail,  on 
the  charge  of  Treason.  The  Border  Ruffians  will  hang  him, 
if  they  dare.  His  crime  is  obedience  to  the  law  of  his  land, 
and  hatred  to  Slavery.  Mr.  Tappan,  a  young  man  known 
to  many  of  you,  a  member  of  this  congregation,  went  to 
Kansas  with  the  first  company  of  emigrants :  a  worthy 
man,  but  guilty  of  respect  for  the  self-evident  truths  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  If  he  is  not  in  jail,  his  free¬ 
dom  is  due  to  his  own  adroitness,  not  the  justice  of  the 
“Authorities.”  The  usurping  Government  strikes  at  those 
men  because  they  love  justice.  Lawrence  has  been  sacked  ; 
property  destroyed,  one  states  to  the  amount  of  a  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  dollars ;  and  I  know  not  how  many 


15 


men  have  been  murdered.  I  shall  not  speak  of  the  violence 
to  women.  These  are  acts  for  which  the  General  Govern¬ 
ment  is  responsible,  committed  by  its  creatures,  who  have 
been  set  upon  the  honest  inhabitants  of  Kansas. 

We  also  have  a  Despotic  Power  in  the  United  States. 
There  is  a  Russia  in  America,  a  privileged  class  of  three 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  slaveholders,  who  own  three 
million  five  hundred  thousand  slaves,  and  control  four  mil¬ 
lion  poor  whites  in  the  South.  This  despotism  is  more 
barbarous  than  Russia;  more  insolent,  more  unscrupulous, 
more  invasive.  It  has  long  controlled  all  the  great  offices 
in  America.  The  President  is  only  its  tool.  It  directs  the 
national  policy,  foreign  and  domestic;  sympathizes  with 
every  foreign  tyrant ;  and,  at  home,  wages  war  on  all  the 
best  institutions  of  the  country.  Impudent  and  consoli¬ 
dated,  it  governs  the  American  Church  and  State.  It  says 
to  the  Tract  Society,  “  Not  a  word  against  Slavery  ;  ”  and 
the  Tract  Society  bends  its  knees,  —  so  limber  to  men,  so 
stiff  against  God,  —  and  answers, 11  Not  a  word  against  Sla¬ 
very  :  we  will  take  a  South-side  view  of  all  popular  wicked¬ 
ness.  it  is  true,  the  North  pays  us  the  money  ;  and  so  it 
is  proper  that  the  South  should  tell  how  it  must  be  spent. 
Not  a  word  against  Slavery.”  It  comes  up  to  the  Bible 
Society,  and  thunders  forth,  “  Don’t  give  the  New  Testament 
to  the  slaves!”  And  the  Bible  Society  says,  “  Not  a  New 
Testament.  Slavery  is  Christian.  If  Jesus  of  Nazareth  were 
on  earth,  he  would  open  a  commissioner’s  office  in  Boston, 
and  kidnap  men.  Judas  is  the  beloved  disciple.  We  never 
will  disturb  Slavery.”  It  tells  the  Northern  courts,  legis¬ 
latures,  governors,  “Steal  men  for  us;  kidnap  your  own 
fellow-citizens  of  New  England,  and  deliver  them  up  to  be 
our  bondsmen  for  ever,  and  then  yourselves  pay  the  costs  !  ” 
And  the  Northern  courts,  legislatures,  governors,  citizen- 
soldiers,  are  ready :  they  volunteer  to  steal  men,  and  then 


16 


pay  the  price,  not  only  of  blood,  but  of  money,  and  that 
“  with  alacrity.” 

In  Kansas,  on  a  large  scale,  this  Russia  in  America,  this 
Privileged  Class  of  despots  in  a  democracy,  wages  war 
against  freedom.  It  burns  houses,  destroys  printing-presses, 
shoots  men.  There  it  was  Missouri  Ruffians,  some  of  them 
members  of  Congress,  an  Ex-Senator  or  so,  United-States 
soldiers,  Southern  immigrants,  whom  it  furnishes  with  wea¬ 
pons,  adorns  with  a  legal  collar,  and  then  sets  upon  the  people. 
Just  now,  the  House  of  Representatives  asks  what  force  the 
Government  has  in  Kansas,  and  what  instructions  have  been 
given.  The  answer  is,  There  is  only  a  Lieutenant-Colonel’s 
command  there, —  half  a  Regiment ;  the  officer  is  ordered 
not  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  territorial  legislature.  This 
does  not  tell  the  whole  story.  The  United- States  Mar¬ 
shal  does  the  bidding  of  the  unlawful  legislature  which  the 
Missourians  elected  :  he  calls  out  his  posse  comitatus ,  and 
the  United-States  Government  furnishes  them  with  wea¬ 
pons  and  authority.  They  are  the  provisional  army  in  this 
civil  war  which  the  Government  wages  against  the  people. 
Look  at  this  fact:  slaveholders  have  hired  immigrants 
to  go  from  Alabama  and  South  Carolina  to  Kansas,  and 
fight  the  battle  of  Slavery.  When  Col.  Beaufort’s  party, 
three  or  four  hundred  strong,  arrived  at  Lawrence,  they  were 
too  poor  to  pay  for  their  first  breakfast.  What  shall  be 
done  with  them  ?  They  are  draughted  into  the  posse  of  the 
sheriff;  and,  in  the  service  of  the  Government,  they  burn 
the  property  and  shoot  the  sons  of  New  England !  I 
need  not  dwell  on  these  things.  Every  mail  brings  tidings 
of  fresh  wickedness  committed  in  that  ill-fated  territory. 

At  Washington,  on  a  small  scale,  this  despotic  power 
wages  war  against  freedom.  There  it  uses  an  arm  of  a 
different  form,  —  the  arm  of  an  Honorable  Ruffian,  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  Congress,  a  (Southern)  “gentleman,”  a  “man  of 
property  and  standing,”  born  of  one  of  the  “  first  families 


17 


of  South  Carolina,”  a  nephew  (by  marriage)  of  Senator 
Butler.  He  skulks  about  the  purlieus  of  the  Capitol,  and 
twice  seeks  to  waylay  his  victim,  honorable,  and  suspecting 
no  dishonor.  But,  failing  of  that  meanness,  the  assassin, 
a  bludgeon  in  his  hand,  pistols  in  his  pocket,  attended 
by  his  five  friends,  armed  also  with  daggers  and  pistols, 
watches  in  the  Senate  chamber  till  his  enemy  is  alone, 
then  steals  up  behind  him  as  he  sits  writing,  when  his 
arms  are  pinioned  in  his  heavy  chair  and  his  other  limbs 
are  under  the  desk,  and  on  his  naked  head  strikes  him  with 
a  club  loaded  with  lead,  until  he  falls,  stunned  and  bleeding, 
to  the  floor,  and  then  continues  his  coward  blows.  South 
Carolina  is  very  chivalrous!  If  an  Irishman  in  Cove  Place 
should  strike  another  Irishman  after  he  was  down,  it  would 
be  thought  a  very  heinous  offence  amongst  Irishmen.  If 
Patrick  had  Michael  down,  and  then  beat  him ,  (pardon 
me,  forty  thousand  Irishmen  in  Boston,  that  I  suppose  it 
possible!)  it  would  be  thought  a  great  outrage.  Cove 
Place  would  hoot  him  forth  with  a  shout  of  contemp¬ 
tuous  rage.  But  when  a  son  of  South  Carolina  beats  a 
defenceless  man  over  the  head,  after  he  has  stunned  him  and 
brought  him  to  the  ground,  it  is  very  chivalrous !  South 
Carolina  applauds  it,  and  gets  up  a  testimonial  to  do  it 
honor.  All  the  South  will  commend  the  mode  as  well  as 
the  matter  of  the  deed. 

This  American  oligarchy  means  to  destroy  all  our  demo¬ 
cratic  institutions.  Russian  despotism  is  not  more  hostile 
to  liberty  in  Europe  than  the  Slave  Power  to  freedom  here. 
But  the  slaveholders  are  not  alone.  American  and  Russian 
despotism  have  the  same  allies,  —  the  corruption  of  many 
controlling  men,  such  as  direct  the  politics  of  the  North, 
and  to  a  great  extent  also  its  large  commerce.  Since 
the  settlement  of  the  country,  the  great  mass  of  North¬ 
ern  men  have  never  been  so  well  educated  and  so 

moral.  But  the  controlling  class  of  men,  who  manage  the 

3 


18 


high  commerce  and  fill  the  political  offices,  have  never  been 
so  corrupt,  so  unpatriotic,  so  mean  and  selfish.  Will  you 
say  I  am  mistaken?  Then  the  error  is  of  long  standing; 
a  judgment  formed  after  careful  study  of  the  past,  and  a 
wide  knowledge  of  the  present.  Look  at  Massachusetts, 
the  State  officials,  the  United-States  officials,  the  United- 
States  Court  in  New  England :  can  the  past  furnish  a 
parallel  since  Andros  was  Commissioner,  and  Papal  James 
II.  was  King  ?  The  Hutchinsons  and  the  Olivers  of  revo¬ 
lutionary  times  would  blush  to  be  named  with  men  whose 
brow  no  wickedness  can  shame.  It  would  be  cruel  to 
Benedict  Arnold  to  compare  him  with  certain  other  sons 
of  New  England  now  in  high  official  place. 

Be  not  surprised  at  this  attack  on  Mr.  Sumner.  It  is  no 
strange  thing.  It  is  the  result  of  a  long  series  of  acts,  each 
the  child  of  its  predecessor,  and  father  of  what  followed, 
not  exceptional,  but  instantial,  in  our  history.  Look  with  a 
little  patience  after  the  Cause  of  those  outrages  at  Kansas 
and  at  Washington.  You  will  not  agree  with  me  to-day: 
I  cannot  convince  four  thousand  men,  and  carry  them  quite 
so  far,  all  at  once.  Think  of  my  words  when  you  go 
home. 

Look  first  at  the  obvious  cause  of  the  blows  dealt  that 
fair  senatorial  head  by  the  Hon.  Mr.  Brooks,  of  South 
Carolina.  It  is  the  ferocious  Disposition  of  the  Slaveholder. 
I  know  the  cruelty  of  that  despotism  only  too  well,  and  am 
not  thought  very  sparing  in  my  words.  You  know  what  I 
utter;  God,  what  I  withhold.  Much,  both  of  fact  and  feel¬ 
ing,  I  have  always  kept  in  reserve,  and  still  keep  it.  What 
I  give  is  quite  as  much  as  any  audience  can  carry  or  will  take. 

This  ferocious  despotism  has  determined  on  two  things : 

First,  Slavery  shall  spread  all  over  the  land,  into  the  Ter¬ 
ritories,  into  the  (so-called)  free  States. 

Second,  Freedom  of  speech  against  it  shall  not  be  al- 


19 


lowed  anywhere  in  the  Territories,  in  the  free  States,  or  in 
the  Capitol,  any  more  than  in  South  Carolina. 

Proof  of  each  is  only  too  plentiful  and  plain.  As  a  sign 
of  the  times,  look  at  a  single  straw  in  the  stream  of  slavery  : 
it  is  a  poison-weed  in  a  muddy,  fetid  stream,  but  it  shows 
which  way  its  pestilential  waters  run.  A  few  days  since,  a 
man,  holding  an  important  office  under  the  United-States 
Government  in  Boston,  told  one  of  my  friends,  “  It  won’t 
be  three  years  before  a  man  will  be  punished  for  talking 
Nigger  (speaking  against  slavery)  in  Boston,  as  surely  as 
he  now  is  in  Charleston,  S.C.”  This  “unterrified  demo¬ 
crat”  has  now  gone  to  the  Cincinnati  Convention,  whereof 
he  is  a  worthy  member,  to  organize  means  to  attain  that 
end.  I  shall  not  tell  you  his  name,  —  that  is  hateful  enough 
already ;  but  turn  your  wrath  against  the  ferocious  despot¬ 
ism  which  uses  him  to  bark  and  bite. 

That  is  the  obvious  cause,  the  cause  initiative,  of  which 
I  have  much  more  to  tell,  only  not  now. 

Look  next  at  the  Secondary  Causes,  not  quite  so  plain, 
but  as  fertile  in  results. 

The  North  allows  the  South  to  steal  black  men,  and  men 
not  much  darker  than  you  and  I,  if  born  of  swarthy  mothers ; 
it  allows  the  South  to  sell  them  at  will,  brand  them  as 
cattle,  mutilate  them  as  oxen,  beat  them,  not  seldom  to 
death,  burn  them  alive  with  green  fagots,  for  the  sport 
of  a  mob  of  “  very  respectable  gentlemen,”  a  “  minister  of 
the  Gospel”  looking  on  and  justifying  the  deed  as  “  Chris¬ 
tian.”  The  North  allows  all  this :  it  is  only  “  an  incident 
of  Slavery,”  the  shadow  of  the  substance.  New  England 
allows  it.  Boston  has  no  considerable  horror  at  any  of 
these  things,  —  I  mean  a  part  of  Boston.  Up  to  this  time, 
Boston  has  defended  slavery  with  her  “  educated  intellect,” 
and  by  means  of  many  of  her  “  citizens  of  eminent  gravity.” 
Hitherto  the  controlling  men  of  Boston  have  been  the  de¬ 
fenders  of  slavery ;  this  day  they  are  not  its  foes. 


20 


Now,  if  the  South  may  thus  ruin  one  black  man,  so  it 
may  all  white  men  whom  it  can  master.  Color  is  an  acci¬ 
dent  to  man  as  to  these  roses ;  it  determines  neither  genus 
nor  species;  it  is  of  the  dress,  not  the  person.  There  is 
only  one  genus  of  man,  one  species,  —  the  human  genus, 
human  species.  The  right  to  enslave  one  innocent  man  is 
the  right  to  enslave  all  innocent  men.  One-seventh  part 
of  the  Federal  House  is  painted  black,  the  rest  white :  do 
you  believe  you  can  set  the  black  part  on  fire,  and  not  burn 
down  the  white,  not  scorch  it,  not  crack  the  boards,  nor 
smoke  the  paint  ?  You  may  say,  “  Thus  far,  but  no  farther :  ” 
will  the  fire  heed  you  ?  I  rather  think  not :  I  believe  the  ex¬ 
perience  of  mankind  tells  another  story.  If  you  sustain  the 
claim  of  South  Carolina  to  beat  black  men  at  Charleston, 
you  need  not  be  surprised  if  she  is  logical  enough  to  beat  a 
white  man  at  Washington,  soon  as  she  dares.  And  her 
daring  will  be  just  in  proportion  to  your  forbearance.  It  is 
a  very  courageous  State,  its  chivalry  bravely  attacking 
defenceless  persons. 

A  portion  of  the  North  —  of  New  England,  Massachusetts, 
Boston,  those  portions  deemed  best  educated,  and,  in  gene¬ 
ral,  most  “orthodox”  and  “  Christian”  in  the  church,  most 
respectable  in  society  —  have  all  along  made  mouths  at 
everybody  who  complained  that  slavery  was  wicked,  was 
cruel,  even  that  it  was  unprofitable.  We  were  told,  “  It  is 
none  of  your  business ;  you  have  nothing  to  do  with  slave¬ 
ry  :  let  it  alone.  Besides,”  they  said,  “  it  is  not  cruel  nor 
unprofitable.  It  is  true,  we  should  not  like  it  for  ourselves ;  * 
but  it  is  good  enough  for  black  men :  it  is  a  very  Christian 
thing.”  You  do  not  forget,  surely,  that  there  is  a  doctor  of 
South-side  Divinity  in  the  city  of  Boston,  a  most  thoroughly 
“respectable  man.”  He  has  not  lost  a  hair  of  “respecta¬ 
bility  ”  from  his  clerical  head  by  perverting  the  Bible  to  the 
defence  of  slavery.  When  the  United-States  Court  opens 
its  session,  it  asks  him  to  come  and  pray  for  a  blessing  on 


21 


the  Court  of  Kidnappers  in  the  city  of  Boston.  It  is  very 
proper.  And  he  represents  the  opinion  of  a  large  class  of 
men,  who  are  bottomed  on  money,  who  have  a  good  intel¬ 
lectual  education,  and  very  high  social  standing. 

When  South  Carolina  shut  up  colored  sailors  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts  in  her  jails  at  Charleston,  and  made  the  merchants 
of  Boston  pay  the  bill,  the  State  sent  one  of  her  eminent 
men  to  remonstrate,  and  take  legal  measures  to  secure  the 
constitutional  rights  of  her  citizens.  But  Mr.  Hoar  was 
ignominiously  driven  out  of  the  State  ;  and  it  was  only 
the  handsome  presence  of  his  daughter  that  saved  him 
from  a  fate  far  worse  than  what  befell  Mr.  Sumner.  Mas¬ 
sachusetts  bore  it  all.  Boston  capitalists  were  angry  if  a 
man  complained  above  his  breath  at  this  indignity ;  but, 
when  they  came  to  be  tired  of  paying  the  bills,  they  got  up 
a  petition  to  Congress,  very  numerously  signed,  asking 
Congress  to  abolish  that  nuisance,  and  secure  the  constitu¬ 
tional  rights  of  Massachusetts  men.  The  petition  was  put 
into  the  hands  of  the  senator  from  Boston ;  but  he  “  lost 
it :  ”  he  “  put  it  into  his  hat,  and,  some  way  or  other,  it  fell 
out.”  But  the  sagacious  merchants  had  kept  a  duplicate, 
and  the  senator  had  an  attested  copy  sent  him.  He  lost  that 
too.  He  never  dared  to  offer  the  petition  of  Boston  mer¬ 
chants  against  an  outrage  which  had  no  color  of  constitu¬ 
tional  plea  to  stand  under.  Freedom  of  speech  was  struck 
dumb  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  more  than  ten  years  ago. 
Even  the  almighty  dollar  could  not  find  a  tongue.  But, 
when  Rufus  Choate  returned  to  Boston,  his  “  respectability  ” 
was  not  harmed  in  the  least:  he  was  still  the  “  Hon.  Mr. 
Choate.”  Suppose  it  had  been  a  petition  to  increase  the 
duty  on  cottons  and  woollens  fifty  per  cent,  and  he  had 
“lost  that  out  of  his  hat”?  Why,  when  he  returned  to 
Boston  —  I  will  not  say  he  would  have  lost  his  head  from 
his  shoulders,  but  it  would  have  been  worth  very  little  upon 
them. 


22 


Long  ago,  the  South  said  the  North  should  not  discuss  the 
morality  of  slavery  ;  that  was  their  business.  Well,  the  con¬ 
trolling  men  of  Boston  obeyed.  They  said,  “  No  :  the 
North  shall  not  discuss  the  subject  of  slavery.”  The  lips  of 
yonder  college  were  sewed  up  with  Slavery’s  iron  thread  : 
I  hope  they  will  open  now.  Slavery  put  its  thumbs  into  the 
ears,  and  its  fingers  over  the  eyes,  of  Boston  respectability ; 
and  it  sewed  up  the  mouth  of  Commerce,  Fashion,  Politics, 
—  I  was  going  to  say  Religion  ;  but  it  did  not :  it  sewed 
up  the  mouth  only  of  the  churches. 

It  is  not  twenty-five  years  since  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
asked  Mayor  Otis,  of  Boston,  to  put  a  stop  to  the  efforts 
of  the  Abolitionists  ;  and,  after  three  days’  search,  the 
police  of  Boston  found  the  “  Liberator,”  who  was  making 
all  this  mischief.  His  office  was  in  a  garret;  and  his  “  only 
visible  auxiliary,”  quoth  Mr.  Otis,  “  was  a  negro  boy.”  Mr. 
Otis  wanted  to  ferret  out  antislavery,  and  put  the  heel  of 
the  Hartford  Convention  upon  it. 

It  is  not  twenty-one  years  since  a  Governor  of  Massachu¬ 
setts,  in  his  annual  message,  recommended  the  Legislature 
to  inquire  if  some  law  should  not  be  made  to  suppress  the 
freedom  of  speech.  It  is  not  yet  quite  twenty-one  years 
since  there  was  a  meeting  in  Faneuil  Hall  to  denounce  the 
discussion  of  this  very  matter.  Here  is  what  a  distin¬ 
guished  man  said;  he  was  not  a  young  man  then:  “I 
would  beseech  them”  [the  Abolitionists]  “to  discard  their 
dangerous  abstractions,”  [the  abstractions  that  “  all  men  are 
endowed  with  certain  unalienable  rights,  among  which  is  the 
right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,”]  “  which 
they  adopt  as  universal  rules  of  conduct,  ....  which  darken 
the  understanding ,  and  mislead  the  judgment.''  He  would 
advise  them  to  consider  “  the  precepts  and  example  of  their 
Divine  Master.  He  found  slavery,  Roman  slavery,  an  in¬ 
stitution  of  the  country  in  which  he  lived.  Did  he  denounce 
it  ?  Did  he  attempt  its  immediate  abolition  ?  Did  he  do 


any  thing,  or  say  any  thing,  which  could,  in  its  remotest 
tendency,  encourage  resistance  and  violence  ?  No :  his 
precept  was,  Servants  (slaves),  obey  your  masters  !  It 
was  because  he  would  not  interfere  with  the  administration  of 
the  laws  of  the  land”  If  the  “Divine  Master”  was  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  then  no  such  word  is  given  to  us  in  this  Bible. 
It  was  only  the  gospel  according  to  Peleg  Sprague.  Boston 
honored  it.  The  hall  rang  with  applause  when  he  invented 
a  Bible  to  suppress  discussion.  Since  that  time  he  has 
had  his  reward :  he  is  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  the  United 
States. 

It  is  not  twenty-one  years  since  a  mob  of  well-dressed 
“  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing,”  in  this  very  city, 
broke  up  a  prayer-meeting  of  women,  where  a  Quaker 
lady  presided,  because  they  came  together  to  discuss  slavery. 
It  is  not  quite  twenty-one  years  since  the  great  advocate  of 
freedom  for  all  men  was  forced  to  take  shelter  in  the  stone 
jail  of  Boston,  to  secure  him  from  the  fury  of  a  mob, — 
the  only  place  in  Boston  where  he  could  be  secure  from  the 
hands  of  the  property,  the  education,  the  fashion,  the  re¬ 
spectability,  of  this  town.  It  is  not  twenty-one  years  since, 
at  night,  a  gallows  was  erected  before  his  house,  with  an 
appropriate  motto  on  it,  meaning,  “  If  you  don’t  hold  your 
peace,  we  will  take  your  life!”  You  know  what  insults, 
private  as  well  as  public,  were  heaped  upon  Dr.  Channing, 
as  soon  as  he  spoke  in  behalf  of  freedom.  He  lost  his 
influence ;  he  hurt  his  reputation.  If  a  minister  said  a 
word  in  behalf  of  the  slave,  that  minister  was  an  object  of 
scorn  in  his  own  parish,  and  in  the  whole  town  also.  No 
man  took  an  interest  in  promoting  the  cause  of  humanity 
but  he  lost  all  his  “  respectability.”  Personal  qualities  stood 
him  in  no  stead  ;  birth  from  a  distinguished  line  was  of  no 
consequence;  even  money  did  not  save  him.  “Decency” 
dropped  him  out  of  its  ranks.  Freedom  of  speech  was 
assaulted  with  violence  in  Boston  long  before  the  experi- 


24 


ment  was  tried  on  the  senatorial  head  of  Mr.  Sumner. 
Mr.  Brooks,  in  Washington,  only  does  in  1856  what  Mr. 
Sprague,  in  Boston,  encouraged  twenty  years  before,  — 
puts  down  discussion. 

When  the  Slave  Power  wanted  Texas  annexed,  to  spread 
bondage  over  two  hundred  and  thirty-seven  thousand  square 
miles  of  land,  the  controlling  men  of  Boston  were  anxious 
for  that  measure.  Even  the  indignant  voice  of  Mr.  Web¬ 
ster  could  not  make  a  public  opinion  against  that  extension 
of  wickedness.  “  However  bounded”  was  the  cry  ! 

When  the  Mexican  War  broke  out,  by  the  act  of  the 
slave  despotism,  how  feebly  did  Boston  oppose  the  crime ! 
Nay,  its  representative  voted  for  the  war  and  the  falsehood 
which  laid  the  blame  on  the  feebler  nation.  How  few 
ministers  dared  speak  against  the  evil  deed !  The  Peace 
Society  turned  its  secretary  out  of  office  because  he  spoke 
against  that  war.  It  struck  its  own  flag  as  soon  as  Slavery 
gave  command. 

Alas!  how  sad  a  gift  is  memory!  You  cannot  forget 
the  year  1850,  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill,  the  discussions  on 
it  at  Boston  and  at  Washington.  It  is  dreadful  to  bring 
up  the  terrible  speech  in  the  Senate  House  on  the  7th  of 
March,  when  that  mighty  power  of  eloquence  shook  the 
land,  so  loud  did  it  cry  for  the  extension  and  perpetuation  of 
slavery  !  You  remember  the  nine  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
men  of  Boston,  who  thanked  the  recreant  son  of  New 
England  for  his  treason  to  humanity,  told  him  he  had 
pointed  out  “  the  path  of  duty,  convinced  the  understand¬ 
ing,  and  touched  the  conscience,  of  a  nation  ;  ”  nay,  ex¬ 
pressed  their  “  entire  concurrence  in  the  sentiments  of  that 
speech,”- and  gave  him  “their  heartfelt  thanks  for  the  ines¬ 
timable  aid  it  afforded  to  the  preservation  of  the  Union.” 
You  cannot  forget  the  speech  from  the  steps  of  the  Revere 
House  on  the  29th  of  April, —  the  declaration  from  those 
senatorial  lips  that  “  discussion  ”  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 


25 


in  Congress  and  out  of  it,  must  “  in  some  way  be  sup¬ 
pressed.”  You  remember  that  Massachusetts  was  to  “  con¬ 
quer  her  prejudices”  in  favor  of  justice  and  the  law  of  God, 
to  “  do  a  disagreeable  duty,”  and  kidnap  her  own  citizens. 
How  many  controlling  men  of  Boston  said  “  Ay,”  we  will 
conquer  those  “prejudices,”  do  that  “disagreeable  duty”! 
Political  and  commercial  journals,  ministers  in  their  pulpits, 
—  they  went  for  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill!  I  wish  I  could 
forget  it  all.  May  God  forgive  them  for  the  atheism  they 
preached,  and  the  dreadful  woe  springing  up  in  our  future 
path  from  the  seed  they  cast  abroad !  But  there  were  honor¬ 
able  exceptions,  commercial  and  ecclesiastical,  —  a  few! 

Mr.  Eliot  voted  for  the  bill  (I  had  hoped  better  things 
from  a  man  with  so  much  good  in  him,  which  no  wicked¬ 
ness,  past  or  future,  shall  blot  from  my  book) ;  and,  when 
he  returned,  the  prominent  citizens  of  Boston  called  upon 
him,  and  one  by  one,  in  public  places,  they  grasped  his 
hand,  and  said,  “  We  thank  you  for  all  this;  it  was  just 
what  we  wanted  you  to  do ;  you  have  represented  the  feel¬ 
ing,  not  of  all  Boston,  but  of  the  property,  the  talent,  the 
piety,  of  Boston.” 

When  the  first  kidnappers  came  here,  you  will  easily  call 
to  mind  the  indignation  of  the  controlling  men,  because 
William  and  Ellen  Craft  could  not  be  taken  and  made 
slaves.  You  will  not  forget  the  Union  meeting  in  Faneuil 
Hall,  the  resolutions,  the  speeches  of  Mr.  Hallett  and  Mr. 
Curtis.  From  the  senator  who  had  lost  the  petition  out 
of  his  hat  came  the  triple  admonition,  “  REMEMBER, 
remember,  remember”  Let  us  keep  it  in  recollection. 

When  the  country  towns,  like  Lynn  and  Worcester,  said, 
“  We  will  not  kidnap  men,”  what  did  the  great  political 
and  commercial  journals  say  ?  “  We  will  cut  off  their  trade  ; 
we  will  starve  them  out.  If  they  do  not  mean  to  sustain 
that  law,  Boston  will  not  deal  with  them :  it  won’t  sell  West- 
India  goods  and  calicoes  to  Lynn  and  Worcester.”  You 

4 


26 


know  what  the  most  distinguished  men  of  Boston  said  of  the 
Free  Soilers  about  that  time.  Some  men  of  high  social 
standing,  large  talent,  great  character,  inherent  nobleness  of 
spirit,  said,  “  We  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  slave-hunting. 
That  bill  is  a  bill  of  abominations  :  we  tread  it  under  our 
feet.”  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  men  of  Boston  called 
these  men  “  a  nest  of  vipers,”  —  said  they  “  broke  their  teeth 
gnawing  a  file :  ”  how  many  echoed  the  word  all  round  the 
town  !  Charles  Sumner  belonged  to  this  “  nest  of  vipers  ” 
in  1851. 

When  Shadrach  was  rescued,  you  know  how  the  news¬ 
papers  mourned  over  it,  and  the  ministers  of  Boston 
made  public  lamentation. 

When  the  Mayor  of  Boston  was  kidnapping  Thomas 
Sims,  to  gratify  the  desire  of  a  certain  family  of  Boston, 
Marshal  Tukey  drilled  the  police  in  Court  Square,  teaching 
them  “  military  duty.”  A  man  laughed  at  the  evolutions 
of  the  “  awkward  squad,”  and,  for  that  offence,  was  impri¬ 
soned  in  the  lockup.  A  woman  was  threatened  with  the 
same  punishment,  for  the  same  offence ;  but  the  Quakeress 
laughed  it  down.  “  Fifteen  hundred  gentlemen  of  property 
and  standing  ”  volunteered  their  armed  help  to  deliver  the 
poor  boy  into  the  bondage  which  now  wears  his  wretched 
life  away.  What  respectable  and  affluent  joy  lit  up  both 
the  parlors  and  the  churches  of  commerce  and  politics  when 
Boston  bore  the  first-fruits  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill !  How 
blessed  was  the  brig  “  Acorn,”  which  cradled  Thomas 
Sims  in  its  shell ! 

Men  of  shortest  memory  can  reach  back  to  Anniversary 
Week,  1854,  and  recollect  Anthony  Burns,  a  Baptist  minis¬ 
ter,  “  ordained  ”  a  slave  by  Commisioner  Loring,  —  fore - 
ordained,  as  the  sentence  was  given  without  waiting  for  the 
“  trial.”  I  hope  you  remember  the  kidnapper’s  counsel  on 
that  occasion.  I  know  you  will  recall  the  soldiers  in  Court 
Square,  who  loaded  their  muskets  with  powder  and  ball. 


27 


I  think  you  have  not  forgotten  the  cannon,  filled  with  canis¬ 
ter-shot  at  that  time,  in  Court  Square.  I  am  sure  some  of 
you  remember  the  charge  of  the  United-States  Judge  on 
the  7th  of  June,  1854 ;  the  indictment,  in  October,  1854, 
against  Wendell  Phillips.  He  had  made  a  fatal  mistake; 
he  did  not  know  that  freedom  of  speech  was  “  to  be  crushed 
out  ”  of  Massachusetts.  So,  in  the  Cradle  of  Liberty,  he  had 
spoken  such  words  as  he  always  speaks,  straight  out  from 
the  heart  of  Humanity,  and  with  a  tongue  of  such  persuasion 
as  never  before  his  time  has  rung  through  New  England ; 
and,  depend  upon  it,  when  that  ceases  to  be  mortal,  God 
will  not  create  such  eloquent  lips  again  in  any  haste.  He 
had  spoken,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  against  kidnapping.  Messrs. 
Hallett  and  Curtis  had  him  indicted  for  a  misdemeanor; 
and  he  was  held  to  bail  in  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  The 
punishment  was  to  be  a  fine  of  three  hundred  dollars,  and 
imprisonment  in  jail  for  twelve  months.  That  was  the 
state  of  things  at  that  time.  Look  at  Boston  now.  The 
Judge  of  Probate,  who  sent  Anthony  Burns  into  bondage, 
is  still  the  guardian  of  orphans.  He  holds  the  same  office 
he  held  before,  though  a  law  of  Massachusetts  has  been 
made  expressly  forbidding  it.  That  law  of  Massachusetts  is 
trodden  under  foot;  the  Governor  treads  it  under  his  feet; 
the  Judge  of  Probate,  the  House  of  Representatives,  the  Se¬ 
nate,  the  press  of  Boston,  tread  it  under  their  feet.  The  City 
Authorities  of  Boston  must  have  some  one  to  deliver  an  ora¬ 
tion  on  the  birthday  of  American  independence.  Do  they 
invite  Mr.  Sumner  ?  Not  at  all.  Mr.  Phillips  ?  They  would 
sink  the  State  rather  than  have  him.  No:  it  must  be  one 
of  the  kidnapper’s  counsel  in  1854.  A  very  proper  man  to 
preach  a  sermon  to  the  people  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  with 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  for  a  text !  He  can  go 
back  two  years,  and  find  an  illustration  of  it.  The  argu¬ 
ment  he  used  in  the  kidnapper’s  court,  in  May,  1854,  would 
be  very  convenient  for  him  to  introduce  on  the  Fourth  of  July, 


28 


1856.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  must  be  read.  I 
suppose  that  will  be  done  by  George  Ticknor  Curtis,  Benja¬ 
min  Franklin  Hallett,  or  some  other  of  that  excellent  frater¬ 
nity  of  kidnappers  who  are  appointed  to  rule  over  us. 

The  Legislature  of  last  winter  (1855)  was  the  greenest 
Legislature  we  ever  had :  it  had  less  legislative  experience 
than  any  other.  It  was  the  poorest  in  point  of  property : 
none  ever  represented  so  small  a  ratio  of  the  wealth  of 
Massachusetts.  It  was  the  most  uneducated  :  none  ever  had 
so  little  of  the  superior  education  which  falls  to  the  lot  of 
lawyers,  doctors,  and  ministers.  But  no  Legislature,  since 
I  have  known  lawmakers,  ever  showed  so  much  honesty, 
humanity,  and  justice.  It  cleared  the  Massachusetts  sta¬ 
tute-book  of  obnoxious  laws,  and  passed  an  excellent  law, 
making  kidnapping  impossible  on  the  soil  of  Massachusetts. 
That  was  a  Legislature  which  contained  the  better  portion  of 
what  is  called  the  “  American  party.”  The  present  Legis¬ 
lature  contains  a  large  portion  of  that  other  part  of  the 
American  party,  which  is  more  properly  called  Know  No - 
thing ,  which  required  no  inauguration  for  membership ;  and 
you  know  what  this  Legislature  proposes  to  do.  It  would 
repeal  the  Personal  Liberty  Law.  Nothing  but  the  assault 
on  freedom  in  Washington  will  save  it.  It  is  laid  over 
until  next  Tuesday,  when  it  receives  its  final  judgment. 
What  that  judgment  shall  be,  I  will  not  now  say. 

Now,  put  all  these  six  or  seven  things  together,  and  see 
what  they  amount  to.  The  slaveholders  understand  this 
perfectly  well.  They  know,  that,  when  they  strike  at  the 
head  of  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
they  attack  a  man  whom  the  respectability  of  Boston 
called  one  of  a  “  brood  of  vipers,”  whom  it  seeks  to  put 
down. 

Put  all  these  things  together,  and  you  see  the  Secondary 
Cause  of  this  wickedness,  —  the  cause  co-operative.  Cor¬ 
rupt  men  at  the  North,  in  New  England,  in  Boston,  have 


29 


betrayed  the  People.  They  struck  at  freedom  before  South 
Carolina  dared  lift  an  arm.  The  slaveholders  know  these 
things,  —  that,  as  often  as  they  have  demanded  wickedness, 
Boston  has  answered  the  demand  :  they  piece  out  their 
small  bit  of  lion’s  skin  with  the  pelt  of  many  a  Northern 
fox.  They  are  in  earnest  for  slavery :  they  think  New  Eng¬ 
land  is  not  in  earnest  for  freedom.  Do  you  blame  them  for 
their  inference  ?  A  few  years  ago,  Mr.  Sumner  spoke  in 
Boston,  on  “  the  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,”  a  lofty  word 
before  the  City  Fathers,  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1845.  An 
Argument  against  War,  a  Plea  for  Peace.  As  two  of  our 
most  distinguished  citizens  came  from  listening,  one  said  to 
the  other,  “  Well,  if  that  young  man  is  going  to  talk  in 
that  way,  he  cannot  expect  Boston  to  hold  him  up.”  Since 
then,  that  young  man  has  spoken  even  nobler  words.  Bos¬ 
ton  has  not  held  him  up ;  nay,  the  controlling  part  of  it  has 
sought  to  strike  him  down,  —  counted  him  one  of  “  a  nest 
of  vipers,”  —  done  nothing  to  support,  all  to  overthrow 
him.  Why  ?  Because  he  was  the  continual  defender  of 
the  unalienable  rights  of  man.  Slaveholders  are  not  fools : 
they  know  all  this.  The  South  never  struck  a  Northern 
advocate  of  a  tariff,  or  a  defender  of  the  Union.  She 
knew  the  North  would  “  hold  up  ”  the  champions  of  the 
Union  and  the  tariff.  It  attacks  only  the  Soldiers  of  Freedom, 
knowing  that  the  controlling  power  of  the  North  also  hates 
them.  I  know  men  in  Boston  to-day,  who  would  long  since 
have  struck  Mr.  Sumner,  had  they  only  dared,  —  nor  him 
alone. 

Last  week,  there  were  two  remarkable  spectacles  in  the 
United  States.  One  at  the  State  House,  in  Boston  :  it  was 
the  Legislature,  stimulated  by  the  enemies  of  freedom,  pro¬ 
ceeding  to  repeal  the  Personal  Liberty  Law,  and  seeking  to 
restore  kidnapping  to  Massachusetts.  I  need  not  tell  here 
who  it  was  —  a  very  few  men  —  that  plotted  the  wicked¬ 
ness,  nor  how  much  they  expected  to  gain  by  it.  On  the 


30 


same  day,  not  far  from  the  same  hour,  in  the  Nation-House 
at  Washington,  there  was  another  spectacle.  A  Represen¬ 
tative  of  slavery,  with  a  bludgeon,  knocks  our  Senator  to 
the  ground,  —  strikes  him  twenty  or  thirty  blows  after  he  is 
down.  They  are  two  scenes  in  the  same  tragedy.  Both 
blows  were  dealt  by  the  same  arm,  —  the  Slave  Power ; 
both  aimed  at  the  same  mark, — the  Head  of  Freedom; 
each  came  from  the  same  motive,  which  I  need  not 
name. 

My  friends,  I  am  not  sorry  to  see  you  thus  excited.  I  am 
too  old  to  look  on  such  scenes  with  astonishment.  I  enter¬ 
tain  no  sudden  heat.  Pardon  me  that  I  am  cool  to-day. 

To  me,  Massachusetts  is  the  twelve  hundred  thousand 
persons  in  it;  or,  more  emphatically,  it  is  the  thoughtful,  it 
is  the  moral,  it  is  the  religious,  people  of  Massachusetts. 
To  me,  Boston  is  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  men 
within  her  limits ;  or,  more  properly  speaking,  it  is  the  moral 
and  religious  part  of  them.  I  am  proud  of  Massachusetts  : 
it  is  the  grandest  State  in  the  world,  I  think.  I  am  proud 
also  of  Boston.  I  respect  and  venerate  her  manifold  excel¬ 
lence.  I  know  her  past  history,  and  look  for  a  future  far 
more  glorious  than  the  deeds  of  Pilgrim  or  Patriot  Fathers 
have  rendered  days  gone  by.  For  this  reason,  I  tell  Boston 
her  faults ;  whereof  the  noble  city  is  not  conscious,  else  had 
she  never  done  those  deeds  of  shame.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
expose  this  wickedness  to  you,  who  easily  understand  it 
all ;  and  even  to  men  not  familiar  with  such  thoughts,  whose 
disapproval  was  most  grateful  unto  me, —  such  men  could  not 
believe  that  our  Boston  was  an  accomplice  with  Carolina 
in  this  foul  work.  I  say  I  am  proud  of  Boston,  —  not  of 
those  controlling  men,  who  darkly  misrule  its  politics,  whose 
Machiavelian  craft  is  like  the  Venetian  poisons  of  old  time, 
which  destroyed  sight,  hearing,  feeling,  every  noblest  sense, 
and  only  left  the  vegetative  life ;  I  am  ashamed  of  them.  I 


31 


do  not  hate  them ;  I  shall  never  belittle  their  excellence ; 
I  do  not  scorn  them.  I  may  be  allowed  to  have  pity  for 
them,  —  not  the  pity  of  contempt,  but  the  pity  of  cha¬ 
rity  and  love.  I  am  not  proud  of  them ;  but  of  the  sober, 
moral  part  of  Boston,  I  am  proud,  —  thereof  is  New  Eng¬ 
land  proud.  It  is  the  grandest  city  in  this  world ;  it  is  the 
humanest  city,  the  most  thoughtful  city,  on  this  continent ; 
it  is  the  furthest  advanced  in  its  humanity. 

But  the  Boston  which  the  South  knows,  listens  to,  and  re- 
pects,  is  a  very  different  city.  It  is  a  Boston  that  consists  of 
some  twenty  or  thirty  persons,  perhaps  a  hundred,  “  men 
of  property  and  standing  ;  ”  and  some  two  or  three  thousand 
flunkies,  —  I  do  not  know  exactly  how  numerous  they  are. 
That  is  the  Boston  which  the  South  knows.  Now,  that  Bos¬ 
ton,  which  the  South  knows,  hates  freedom,  hates  democracy, 
hates  religion.  In  1835,  it  put  down  a  woman’s  prayer¬ 
meeting.  In  1844,  it  annexed  Texas.  In  1846,  it  liked  the 
Mexican  War.  In  1850,  it  indorsed  the  Fugitive  Slave 
Bill.  In  1851,  it  sent  back  Thomas  Sims  to  bondage. 
In  1854,  it  “  restored  ”  Anthony  Burns.  In  1856,  it  pays 
the  kidnapper’s  counsel  to  discourse  to  the  people  on  the 
Fourth  of  July.  The  South  understands  that  that  Boston 
hates  Mr.  Sumner,  —  hates  him  because  he  loves  liber¬ 
ty  ;  hates  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Banks  ;  and  hates  the  memory 
of  Washington,  and,  whenever  it  mentions  him,  it  disem¬ 
bowels  him  of  his  noblest  humanity  before  it  dares  to  praise. 
Last  night,  at  Faneuil  Hall,  there  was  much  official  talk 
about  freedom  of  speech.  Some  of  it  was  honest;  but  how 
much  of  it  was  only  “  sound  and  fury,  signifying  nothing”  ? 
Study  the  history  of  the  speakers,  —  it  is  not  a  long  task,  — 
and  then  judge. 

The  ghastly  evils  which  Southern  despotism  has  brought 
on  us  in  ten  years’  time  are  to  be  charged  to  a  few  persons. 
I  could  mention  ten  men  in  Boston  who  might  have  saved 
us  all  this  woe.  In  1844,  if  they  had  said,  No  such  annexa- 


32 


tion  of  Texas,  —  her  hand  red  with  Mexican  blood,  her 
breath  foul  with  Slavery,  —  the  Slave  Power  would  have 
yielded  before  us.  In  1850,  had  they  said,  There  shall  be 
no  Fugitive  Slave  Act,  Mr.  Mason’s  Bill  had  slept  the  sleep 
of  death.  Even  after  Mr.  Webster  had  spoken  against  the 
best  instincts  of  his  nature,  which  I  still  love  to  think  was 
generous,  they  might  have  forbid  the  evil  which  came. 
Had  they  said  the  word,  no  kidnappers  had  profaned  the 
grave  of  Hancock  and  Adams.  In  April,  1851,  if  they  had 
said,  Mr.  Sims  is  not  to  be  a  slave  henceforth,  the  family  of 
man-stealers  would  suddenly  have  u  caved  in.”  In  the  win¬ 
ter  of  1854,  when  Mr.  Douglas  wished  to  spread  Slavery 
into  Nebraska,  had  these  men  heartily  said,  It  shall  not  be, 
it  would  not  be.  In  the  May  of  that  year,  if  they  had  de¬ 
clared,  We  have  had  enough  of  man-stealing  for  Boston ; 
nay,  if  only  four  of  them  had  entered  the  Court  House,  and 
spoken  to  Mr.  Burns,  given  him  the  public  sign  of  their 
sympathy,  —  depend  upon  it,  we  should  not  have  been  a 
second  time  tormented  with  that  hideous  sin.  Commis¬ 
sioner  Loring  was  not  born  for  a  kidnapper :  that  once 
kindly  and  now  suffering  heart  took  such  wickedness  by 
collateral  infection,  not  hereditary  taint.  But  those  ten  men 
wanted  this  iniquity  brought  about,  wanted  slave-ridden 
Texas  in  ’44,  wanted  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  in  ’50,  kidnap¬ 
ping  in  ’51,  and  again  in  ’54.  They  protested  against  the 
“  abrogation  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,”  but  in  such  lan¬ 
guage  that  the  South  knew  it  meant,  “  Do  as  you  like ;  we 
will  not  prevent  you.”  So  it  has  been  continually,  “  On 
the  side  of  the  Oppressor  there  was  Power.” 

Where  are  such  men  now?  Recall  the  platform  of  last 
night.  Where  were  the  citizens  of  most  “  eminent  gravity,” 
where  the  great  fortunes,  the  great  offices,  the  judges  of  the 
courts,  the  great  “  reputations  ”  ?  Not  one  of  them  was 
there.  Of  the  Boston  which  the  South  cares  for,  I  saw  not 
a  man.  Why  not  ?  You  shall  answer  that  question. 


In  Boston,  there  are  three  men  of  senatorial  dignity  :  they 
have  been  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  have  all 
left  it.  They  are  men  of  large  talent,  good  education,  high 
social  standing.  They  are  all  public  orators,  and  seek  occa¬ 
sions  on  which  to  address  the  people  ;  and,  to  one  of  them, 
speech  is  as  the  breath  of  his  nostrils.  Last  night,  there 
was  a  meeting  to  express  the  indignation  of  Boston  at  the 
outrage  on  Mr.  Sumner.  These  three  men  were  asked 
to  go  and  speak :  not  one  of  them  was  there.  Twice  the 
Committee  waited  on  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Everett,  and 
twice  solicited  the  ex-senators  to  come  and  speak;  and  twice 
was  the  labor  thrown  away.  Did  Mr.  Everett,  once  a  mini¬ 
ster  of  this  city,  remember  that  he  refused  to  present  in 
the  Senate  the  petition  of  three  thousand  New-England 
ministers  against  the  enslavement  of  Kansas  ?  Did  he  recol¬ 
lect,  that,  a  whole  generation  since,  he  volunteered  to  shoul¬ 
der  his  musket,  and  march  from  Bunker  Hill  to  Virginia  to 
put  down  any  attempt  of  the  slaves  to  regain  their  natural 
and  unalienable  Bight  to  Liberty  ?  At  a  generous  word, 
Massachusetts,  who  never  forgets,  would  have  rejoiced  anew 
in  the  bounteous  talents,  in  the  splendid  scholarship,  of  the 
man,  —  would  have  recalled  every  public  service  he  has  done, 
and  dropped  a  tear  on  his  failures  and  evil  deeds.  But  it 
was  not  in  him.  Mr.  Winthrop  inherits  a  name  dear  to 
all  New  England,  —  connected  with  her  earliest  history, 
stitched  into  the  cradle-clothes  of  American  liberty.  Could 
not  he  add  a  personal  leaf  to  the  ancestral  bough,  —  a  merit 
to  an  accident?  Or  did  he,  who  called  Mr.  Sumner  one  of 
a  “nest  of  vipers/’  think  Mr.  Brooks  was  that  prophetic 
“seed  of  the  woman,”  who  was  to  ‘‘bruise  the  serpent’s 
head  ”  ?  Let  us  honor  every  public  service  of  such  men 
with  generous  gratitude,  but  not  forget  how  they  fail  us  in 
an  hour  of  need, —  never,  till  they  repent:  then  let  the  dead 
bury  their  dead,  and  let  us  manfully  forgive. 

There  is  great  talk  about  the  freedom  of  speech  :  how 


34 


much  of  it  is  sincere  ?  Last  night,  at  the  indignation  meeting, 
—  which  had  a  low  platform,  —  there  were  two  speakers, 
who,  as  a  hearer  said,  “  had  got  the  hang  of  the  school- 
house,”  and  knew  what  to  say ;  but,  with  these  exceptions, 
the  speaking  was  rather  dull,  and  did  not  meet  the  feelings 
of  the  people.  Towards  the  end,  the  audience,  seeing  the 
well-known  face  of  that  man  whose  eloquence  never  fails 
him,  because  it  is  eloquence  that  comes  out  of  so  brave  a 
heart,  called  for  him  :  u  Phillips !  Phillips  !  Phillips!  PHIL¬ 
LIPS  !  ”  What  said  the  platform  ?  “  Phillips  shan’t  be 

heard ;  ”  and  they  dismissed  the  meeting,  —  a  meeting  called 
to  vindicate  freedom  of  speech  in  Massachusetts ;  and  the 
one  speaker  of  Massachusetts  —  who  would  have  gathered 
that  audience,  as  I  hold  up  in  my  hand  these  sweet  Lilies 
of  the  Valley,  and  have  raised  them  towards  heaven,  and 
then  brought  them  down  for  common  duty —  must  not  speak, 
though  the  audience  calls  for  him !  The  South  understands 
us  perfectly  well. 

Blame  me  as  much  as  you  please  for  what  I  say:  ten 
years  hence  you  will  say  that  I  am  right.  But,  ere  I  go 
further  on,  let  me  do  an  act  of  gratitude  and  justice.  In  all 
those  dark  days  behind  us,  there  have  been  found  faithful 
men,  who  risked  their  political  prospects,  the  desires  of 
honorable  ambition,  their  social  standing,  nay,  the  esteem 
of  their  nearest  relatives,  and  were  faithful  to  Truth  and 
Justice.  What  treatment  have  they  met  with  in  the  Parlor, 
in  the  Forum,  in  the  Market,  in  the  Church  ?  One  day, 
their  history  must  be  writ;  and  some  names  now  hated 
will  appear  like  those  which  were  the  watchwords  of 
the  Revolution,  and  are  now  the  heavenly  sounds  that 
cheer  the  young  patriot  in  this  night  of  storms.  In 
such  men,  no  city  is  so  rich  as  this.  Daughter  of  Noble¬ 
ness,  she  is  its  Mother  too.  I  hope  to  live  long  enough  to 
do  public  honor  to  their  high  worth. 


35 


Be  not  surprised  at  the  attack  on  our  Senator.  Violence 
at  Washington  is  no  new  thing.  You  have  not  forgot  the 
threat  to  assassinate  John  Quincy  Adams.  I  knew  men  in 
Boston  who  said  they  wished  it  might  be  executed.  But,  not 
to  go  back  so  far,  see  what  has  happened  this  present  year. 
Mr.  William  Smith,  formerly  Governor  of  Virginia  (Extra 
Billy),  knocked  down  an  editor  in  the  House  of  Represent¬ 
atives.  Mr.  Rusk,  of  Arkansas,  with  equal  cowardliness, 
attacked  another  editor  in  the  street,  —  Mr.  Greeley.  Some 
Boston  newspapers  justified  the  outrage:  a  man  who  ven¬ 
tures  to  say  a  word  against  a  distinguished  slaveholder 
must  expect  to  be  knocked  down.  Alabamian  Mr.  Herbert 
shoots  a  waiter ;  the  House  takes  the  matter  into  conside¬ 
ration,  and  will  not  expel  him  :  the  Democratic  party  vote 
against  it;  not  a  Southern  Democrat,  and  but  one  Northern 
Democrat,  I  think,  saying  otherwise.  The  Know-nothing 
part  of  the  American  party  go  in  the  same  direction :  al^ 
the  South  justify  the  deed.  It  is  a  country  in  which  there 
is  only  one  class  of  men,  and  freedom  of  religion  is  secure  ! 
But  it  is  of  no  consequence  if  an  Irish  Catholic,  who  is  a 
waiter,  is  shot  down  by  an  Alabamian! 

Charles  Sumner  is  the  next  victim.  One  thing  I  must 
tell  you,  which  you  do  not  understand.  There  was  a  plot 
laid  among  these  “  chivalrous  gentlemen  ”  to  do  the  deed. 
When  the  Senate  adjourned,  several  distinguished  Southern 
Senators  staid :  it  was  noticed  by  some  persons,  and  one 
said,  “  I  wonder  what  is  in  the  wind  now.”  Mr.  Wilson 
has  not  the  reputation  of  a  non-resistant;  he  is  a  me¬ 
chanic,  and  a  soldier,  —  a  general.  He  carried  his  pistols 
to  Washington,  and  caused  it  to  be  distinctly  under¬ 
stood  that  he  had  not  the  common  New-England  prejudice 
against  shooting  a  scoundrel.  He  has  not  been  insulted, 
and  he  will  not  be.  That  day  he  had  some  business  with 
Mr.  Sumner.  He  came  and  spoke  a  word  to  him  as  he  sat 
and  wrote  at  his  desk.  Those  ruffians,  Mr.  Brooks  and  Mr. 


36 


Keitt,  had  come  into  the  Senate :  they  did  not  advance,  but 
sat  down  and  waited  until  Mr.  Wilson  had  withdrawn. 
The  only  ally  of  Mr.  Sumner  was  then  gone ;  not  a  friend 
stood  near  him.  Then  the  Southern  “chivalry”  gathered 
around,  and  Mr.  Brooks  came  and  assaulted  him. 

Now,  do  you  know  the  seed  whence  came  the  bludgeon 
which  struck  that  handsome  and  noble  head  ?  It  was  the 
“Acorn,”  in  whose  shell  Boston  carried  back  Thomas 
Sims  in  1851 ;  and  on  the  19th  of  April,  on  the  seventy-sixth 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Lexington,  she  took  him  out  of 
that  shell  and  put  him  in  a  jail  at  Savannah,  where  he  was 
scourged  till  a  doctor  said,  “  You  will  kill  him  if  you  strike 
him  again  !  ”  and  the  master  said,  “  Let  him  die !  ”  That 
was  the  Acorn  whence  grew  the  bludgeon  which  struck 
Charles  Sumner. 

Here  is  a  letter  from  him,  written  but  a  day  before 
beginning  his  speech:  “Alas!  alas!”  he  says,  “  the  tyranny 
over  us  is  complete !  Will  the  people  submit  ?  When 
you  read  this,  I  shall  be  saying  in  the  Senate,  they 
will  not.  I  shall  pronounce  the  most  thorough  Philip¬ 
pic  [against  slavery]  ever  uttered  in  a  legislative  body.” 
He  kept  his  word:  it  was  the  most  thorough  Philippic 
against  Slavery  ever  uttered  in  an  American  Parliament. 
Nay,  Wilberforce  and  Brougham,  and  their  famous  peers, 
never  surpassed  it  in  the  British  House.  The  talent, 
the  learning,  the  eloquence  of  Mr.  Sumner  never  went 
further.  The  composure,  the  respectful  dignity,  of  this 
man,  who  is  a  gentleman  amongst  gentlemen,  was  never 
more  decorous  and  manly  than  at  that  time.  He  gave  an 
argument :  the  South  has  answered  it  with  a  bludgeon  cut 
from  a  tree  whose  seed  was  sown  in  Boston,  —  Mr.  Pearson’s 
Acorn.  Two  years  before  this  assault,  Judge  Loring  was 
kidnapping  Mr.  Burns.  That  very  day,  the  Know-nothing 
Legislature,  stimulated  thereto  by  men  well  known,  was 


37 


attempting  to  re-establish  kidnapping  in  Boston,  by  de¬ 
stroying  the  Personal  Liberty  Law.  It  was  not  my  Bos¬ 
ton  that  wanted  such  wickedness  ;  it  was  the  slave-hunter’s 
Boston  that  wanted  it,  —  a  few  men,  idiotic  in  conscience, 
heart,  and  soul. 

I  keep  the  coat  of  Thomas  Sims ;  it  is  rent  to  tatters. 
I  wish  I  had  also  the  bloody  garment  of  Charles  Sumner, 
that  I  might  show  it  to  you ;  and  I  would  ask  Boston, 
“  Knowest  thou  whether  this  be  thy  son’s  coat  or  no  ?  ” 
And  Boston  would  answer,  u  It  is  my  son’s  coat :  an  evil 
beast  hath  devoured  him.”  And  I  would  say,  “  The  evil 
beast  is  of  your  own  training.” 

When  Mr.  Phillips  was  indicted  for  freedom  of  speech, 
the  bail  was  fixed  at  fifteen  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Brooks 
is  arrested  for  beating  a  man  to  an  extent  which  may  cause 
his  death  :  the  bail  was  fixed  at  five  hundred  dollars.  The 
crime  is  only  one-third  so  greats  In  1851,  when  a  Penn¬ 
sylvania  Quaker,  a  miller  with  a  felt  hat,  rides  to  his 
neighbor’s  house  on  his  sorrel  horse,  and  the  colored  peo¬ 
ple,  resisting  a  kidnapper,  cheer  him,  he  is  indicted  for  high 
treason  against  the  United  States,  and  spends  months  in 
jail;  but  Mr.  Brooks  goes  at  large.  Passmore  Williamson 
was  charged  with  contempt,  —  not  for  the  United  States, 
not  for  its  laws,  but  only  for  Judge  Kane ;  and  he  spends 
months  in  jail ;  and  Mr.  Representative  Brooks  goes  at  large 
all  this  time. 

Now,  I  am  not  surprised  at  this.  They  who  sow  the 
wind  must  expect  to  see  the  whirlwind  come  up  in  time. 
It  is  very  pretty  work  sowing  the  wind  broadcast;  light  and 
clean  to  the  hand,  very  respectable :  but  when  you  come  to 
eat  the  harvest  of  whirlwinds,  when  the  bread  of  storms  is 
broke  on  your  table,  then  you  remember  that  “  righteousness 
exalteth  a  nation,  and  sin  is  the  ruin  of  any  people.”  When 
the  vilest  of  men  are  exalted,  you  must  expect  the  wicked 
will  “walk  on  every  side.”  Remember  the  Cause  of  this 


38 


wickedness  in  Washington,  Kansas,  all  over  the  land,  —  the 
ferocious  disposition  of  the  slaveholders,  their  fixed  deter¬ 
mination  to  spread  bondage  over  the  whole  country,  to 
“  crush  out  ”  all  freedom  of  speech.  Remember  the  allies  of 
that  ferocity,  —  corrupt  men  in  the  midst  of  us  who  have 
promoted  this  wickedness,  who  still  encourage  it.  Remem¬ 
ber  the  general  servility  of  the  Northern  people,  who  tread 
down  the  black  man  that  the  white  might  gain  money  from 
the  oppressor. 

Do  not  think  this  is  the  act  of  a  single  person.  Mr. 
Brooks  is  a  representative  man,  more  decorous  and  well- 
mannered  than  most  men  of  his  section  or  his  State.  He 
was  but  the  agent  of  the  Slave  Power:  all  the  South  will 
justify  his  deed.  Already  South  Carolina  sends  him  a 
“  testimonial”  of  its  gratitude,  —  a  pitcher  and  a  cane.  Of 
course,  there  are  honorable  men  in  the  South,  who  abhor  this 
cowardly  violence ;  but  they  will  not  dare  to  speak  aloud. 

Do  not  think  the  blow  was  struck  at  Mr.  Sumner  alone. 
It  was  at  you  and  me  and  all  of  us,  —  a  blow  at  freedom  of 
speech.  Violence  must  begin  somewhere,  and  he  happened 
to  be  there.  Now  threats  are  uttered  against  all  others  who 
oppose  the  enslavement  of  the  people :  your  masters 
say  that  Seward,  Wilson,  Wade,  and  Hale  shall  next  take 
their  turn. 

It  is  encouraging  to  see  the  Effect  of  this  Outrage  on  the 
people  at  the  North.  Nothing  has  so  stirred  men  before. 
Each  new  stroke  of  the  slave-driver’s  whip  startles  some 
one.  Whenever  slavery  is  driven  through  our  Northern 
cities,  it  breaks  up  the  pavement  a  little ;  the  stones  are 
never  replaced :  by  and  by,  the  street  will  be  impassable 
for  that  tumbril.  The  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  opened  some 
Northern  eyes ;  others  were  unstopped  by  its  enforcement 
here.  Some  recovered  their  conscience  when  the  Nebraska 
iniquity  was  first  proposed ;  the  blows  in  the  Senate  House 
waken  yet  more  ;  the  fall  of  the  buildings  at  Lawrence 


39 


startle  other  men  from  deadly  sleep.  “  Let  bygones  be 
bygones :  ”  if  a  man  comes  into  the  field  at  the  eleventh 
hour,  to  honest  work,  let  not  those  who  have  borne  the 
burthen  and  heat  of  the  day  grudge  him  his  place  and 
his  penny.  If  a  man  stand  with  his  back  leaning  against 
the  public  whipping-post  in  Charleston,  S.C.,  but  looks 
northward,  and  loves  freedom,  and  will  do  any  thing  for  it, 
let  us  give  him  our  thanks  and  our  help. 

The  crime  which  the  slaveholders  have  now  committed 
against  our  senator  is  very  small  compared  to  the  sin  of 
Boston  against  two  of  its  inhabitants.  Which  is  worse, 
for  Mr.  Brooks  at  Washington  to  beat  an  unarmed  senator 
with  a  heavy  bludgeon,  taking  him  unawares,  or  for  Com¬ 
missioner  Curtis  and  Commissioner  Loring  to  steal  Mr. 
Sims  and  Mr.  Burns?  What  are  a  few  blows,  to  slavery 
for  life?  what  the  Southern  “testimonial,”  compared  to  the 
“fifteen  hundred  gentlemen ”  who  voluntered  for  the  first 
kidnapping,  and  the  citizen  soldiers  who  so  eagerly  took 
part  in  the  last  one  ?  Will  Massachusetts  ask  the  House 
of  Representatives  to  expel  the  assassin  ?  Who  is  Judge  of 
Probate  in  Suffolk  County  ?  Two  years  ago,  with  the 
sword  of  Boston,  the  slaveholders  cut  and  wounded  peace¬ 
ful  citizens  of  our  own  town,  and  in  vain  do  they  be¬ 
siege  the  courts  of  our  own  State  for  redress !  Mr.  Brooks 
obeys  the  law  of  honor  among  ruffians,  Messrs.  Curtis  and 
Loring  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill:  which  is  the  better  of  the 
two,  —  the  law  of  bullies,  or  of  kidnappers  ?  If  Mayor  Smith 
had  a  right  to  tread  down  the  laws  of  Massachusetts,  and 
smite  and  stab  men  with  the  sword,  that  he  might  steal  a 
negro,  why  may  not  Mr.  Brooks  beat  a  senator  who  speaks 
against  the  great  crime  of  the  nation? 

1  rejoice  in  the  indignation  which  this  outrage  has 
caused.  Boston  is  stirred  as  never  before.  Hoes  she  know 
that  Mr.  Sumner  was  wounded  for  her  transgression,  and 
bruised  for  her  iniquity  ?  Let  us  lay  these  things  sorrow- 


40 


fully  to  heart.  The  past  cannot  be  recalled  ;  but  we  may 
do  better  in  the  future,  —  remove  the  causes  of  this  evil ; 
may  root  slavery  out  of  the  land,  “peaceably  if  we  can, 
forcibly  if  we  must.” 

In  the  country,  I  expect  great  good  from  this  wickedness. 
New-England  farmers  cover  the  corn  they  plant  with  a 
prayer  for  God’s  blessing  :  this  year  they  will  stamp  it  also 
with  a  curse  on  slavery.  The  matter  will  be  talked  over 
by  the  shoemakers,  and  in  every  carpenter’s  and  trader’s 
shop.  The  blacksmith,  holding  the  horse’s  hoof  between 
his  legs,  will  pause  over  the  inserted  nail,  and  his  brow 
grow  darker  while  the  human  fire  burns  within.  Meetings 
will  be  held  in  fifty  towns  of  Massachusetts,  nowhere  with 
a  platform  so  tame  as  that  last  night. 

There  is  a  war  before  us  worse  than  Russian.  It  has 
already  begun  :  when  shall  it  end  I  “  Not  till  Slavery 
has  put  freedom  down,”  say  your  masters  at  the  South. 
“  Not  till  Freedom  has  driven  slavery  from  the  continent,” 
let  us  say  and  determine. 

I  have  four  things  to  propose :  First,  Ask  Mr.  Sum¬ 
ner  to  come  to  Boston  on  the  4th  of  July,  and,  in  this  place, 
give  us  an  oration  worthy  of  the  day,  worthy  of  Boston, 
and  worthy  of  himself.  If  he  is  too  sick,  ask  Wendell 
Phillips ;  and,  depend  upon  it,  he  will  be  well.  Second, 
Make  Mr.  Sumner  senator  next  time,  and  let  those  men 
who  talk  about  a  “  nest  of  vipers  ”  understand  that  Massa¬ 
chusetts  knows  who  has  got  poison  on  his  tongue.  Third, 
Make  a  man  president  who  is  not  a  knave,  not  a  dunce. 
Fourth,  Reverence  the  higher  law  of  God  in  politics  and  in 
every  thing  else  ;  be  not  afraid  of  men  ;  do  not  be  afraid 
of  God,  but  afraid  to  violate  any  law  which  he  has  writ  on 
your  soul;  and  then  his  blessing  will  be  upon  you,  and  his 
peace  will  be  with  us  for  ever  and  ever. 


